'I pretended to be another author to get honest view on my book' - Cecelia

Melanie Finn
– 15 June 2016 02:30 AM

Cecelia Ahern used the name Eden Kelly when she submitted her latest book Picture: Brian McEvoy

She may have sold nearly five millions books worldwide and have two Hollywood movies to her name, but modest Cecelia Ahern submitted her latest novel under a different name as she said she "wanted to know if it was good".

The best-selling author used the pseudonym Eden Kelly for her new book Flawed as she wanted an honest opinion of it.

Marking a departure from her usual popular fiction books, the young adult fantasy novel has already been optioned by Warner Brothers.

Important

"I submitted it to many countries under a different name because I wanted to know if it was good. I didn't want to leap into a new genre and feel, 'Oh it's Cecelia Ahern. They're going to like it.' So I wrote it under a different name," she said.

She chose Eden Kelly as a 13-year-old fan named Eden was one of the first youngsters to ever read Flawed and Kelly is her mum Miriam's maiden name.

"That was really important to me to know that this book was good as Eden Kelly and not Cecelia Ahern.

"There's some people who know my voice and they would say 'Either someone's trying to copy Cecelia or this is Cecelia'.

"So some people knew, but some people didn't know.

"But they obviously found out when we negotiated. We had to tell them," she said.

Centred around a young heroine called Celestine, her follow-up book Perfect has also been optioned by Warner Brothers with the first book in pre-production already.

They're joining forces with Wendy Finerman productions, the same company behind the box office hit PS I Love You which starred Gerard Butler.

The best-selling writer told the Anton Savage show on Today FM how she also has a particular actress in mind for the big role and has discussed it with the production company - but she's keeping the A-list name under wraps for now.

Perfect

Set in a Dystopian future, her book tells the story of a 17-year-old who lives in a society where being perfect is the ultimate goal and any deviation could result in a person being branded 'flawed.'

Already drawing comparisons to the hit blockbuster Divergent, she recently flew to LA to meet with producers to discuss the movie version.

The mum-of-two (34) is married to David Keoghan and has an impressive 13 books to her name, writing one every year since she was 21 years old.